Israel-based Hemispheric has emerged from stealth with USD 52 million in early-stage funding as it prepares to commercialize a large-scale AI platform designed to generate objective, quantitative measurements of brain function — an area that has historically lacked the diagnostic infrastructure available for other organ systems. The round draws backing from Hanaco Ventures, OneMind/Awareness Capital, Protocol Labs, L Catterton, and Arkin Capital, alongside individual investors including Howard Morgan, Naomi Azrieli, Yasmin Lukatz, and Scott Belsky.
The company was co-founded by Hagai Lalazar, PhD, a computational neuroscientist serving as CEO, and Gidi Littwin, CTO, who previously co-founded RealFace — acquired by Apple and integrated into FaceID — and is listed as a co-inventor of that technology. The founding team also includes engineers with backgrounds in FDA-cleared medical imaging and Apple Vision Pro development.
At the center of Hemispheric's platform is Descartes, a 6-billion-parameter foundation model trained on more than 250,000 hours of multimodal EEG and behavioral recordings collected from over 100,000 participants through the company's proprietary global research network. The model is designed to translate non-invasive brain electrical signals into structured, quantitative readouts that clinicians and researchers can use for diagnosis, patient stratification, treatment selection, and longitudinal monitoring. Hemispheric describes the approach as analogous to how large language models encode semantic meaning from text — applied instead to the brain's bioelectrical output. The platform requires no surgery; patients wear a dry EEG headset for approximately 15 minutes while interacting with a tablet or phone application.
Initial target indications include PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. Hemispheric has engaged with the US FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health and described its regulatory approach as broad, consistent with a medical device classification pathway. Specific regulatory submissions and timelines were not disclosed. The company said it is working with unnamed government and pharma partners to deploy the platform, with the US and European markets identified as primary.